“All back, safe and sound,” he announced gaily. Then he added in a slightly puzzled tone, “Although the welcoming party seems to have become somewhat mislaid.”
Eagerly, Nuella sniffed the night air, hoping to catch a scent of new arrivals before J’lantir’s eyes saw them. She listened, drinking in the night noises, sifting through them for the sound of approaching feet. With a triumphant smile she found them—a pair approaching, just coming into view about—
“Ah, there they are,” J’lantir announced. “Not quite as many as I would have expected, but perhaps it’s the late hour.”
“No,” Nuella said, suddenly feeling chilled. “Something’s wrong.”
“Nuella?” Zenor called out in the night.
Nuella took a relieved breath. “Zenor, what is it? Where’s Kindan? Kisk?” Nuella reached out for the familiar wispy touch of her favorite watch-wher and got back saddened darkness. “What happened?”
“There’s been an accident,” Renna said, walking up beside her brother.
“It’s all my fault!” Zenor cried in a tear-choked voice.
“A cave-in,” Renna said.
“Kindan? Kisk? Are they okay?” Nuella asked in panic.
“They’re in the shed,” Renna said. “Kindan tried to go but Tarik forbade him and punched him when he tried to get in anyway.”
“Tarik?” Nuella repeated blankly.
“He’s no miner,” Zenor snarled. “I told Natalon when I saw their joists. He—your father went to look for himself. He was furious when he saw the state of Second Street. He made Tarik switch with him.” He took a deep breath and said in a rush, “I think they were shoring up the tunnel when it collapsed.”
“Father?” Nuella cried.
“And Dalor—all their shift,” Renna told her tearfully.
“Tarik,” Zenor said venomously, “said that the cave-in was too long to dig them out.”
“Toldur tried anyway,” Renna added. “But they couldn’t get more than a meter. Toldur said that at least ten meters of the tunnel’s caved in. That’d take weeks to dig out.”
“Tarik put guards on the shaft after Kindan tried to bust in,” Zenor said. “There’s only a pump crew there now, trying to get clear air into the mine.”
Nuella started walking down the hill toward the camp.
“Nuella,” J’lantir called after her, “what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to see Kindan,” Nuella shouted over her shoulder. “I’m going to rescue my father.”
Kindan’s eyes snapped open as someone nudged him awake. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but the day’s events had left him battered, bruised, and more frazzled than he had realized. A soft hand felt his forehead and pulled away quickly from the large bump and half-dried scab.
“He hit you hard, didn’t he?” Nuella asked as he sat up. “Can you walk?”
“Nuella . . .” Kindan groped for words.
Nuella shushed him with a finger on his lips. “Zenor told me.”
“I tried, Nuella,” Kindan said with new tears rolling down his cheeks. “Kisk and I tried.”
“I know,” she said, her throat tight with pain. “I know.” She felt her warm tears run down her face and hugged Kindan tightly, and for a moment both of them were lost in their grief. After a long while, Nuella felt the tightness in her chest ease and she drew back from Kindan. “Can you try again?” she asked after a moment.
The curtain at the entrance rustled and someone stepped into the shadows.
“I have an axe.” It was Cristov.
“Cristov?” Nuella said in surprise. Her mouth hardened. “You can’t stop us.”
“Nuella,” Kindan began, warningly.
“I won’t stop you,” Cristov said with a grim smile. “I want to help.”
Nuella gasped in surprise.
“I won’t stop until we get them out,” Cristov said fiercely. “Alive or dead.” He looked at Kindan. “Your father taught me that. A miner never leaves his friends.” He added dejectedly, “Only, I don’t know how to get past the guards.”
“I do!” Nuella sprang up from the floor. Kindan stood up with her. Kisk rose and, with a cry of support, rustled her stubby wings.
They met Zenor and Renna at the shed’s entrance. Kindan spoke quickly in low tones to Zenor to explain the situation with Cristov and then they all headed up to the hold.
“Where are we going?” Cristov asked. “This is the path to the hold.”
“Exactly,” Nuella said. “Didn’t you ever wander around it when you lived there?”
“Well, yes,” Cristov admitted reluctantly.
“Did you ever try the closet on the second floor?” Kindan asked.
“I knew there had to be another entrance!” Cristov exclaimed. “But the closet?”
Kindan enjoyed Cristov’s look of amazement as they made their way up to the second-floor landing, but his own jaw dropped when they topped the stairs.
“Toldur!”
The big miner grinned down at them. “You’re late,” he said, hefting an axe to his shoulder. “I thought I was going to have to come find you myself.”
He nodded to Kindan. “I figured you were your father’s son. I knew you’d try again.” He caught sight of Nuella and frowned; his frown deepened when Renna reached the top of the stairs.
“This is Natalon’s daughter, Nuella,” Zenor said, stepping forward deliberately. “She’s going to rescue her father.”
“And I’m helping,” Renna added in a voice that brooked no argument.
“There are enough hard hats for all of us through that door,” Nuella said, pointing beyond Toldur’s back.
The big miner grinned. “Don’t I know it? Who do you think checks on ’em to make sure they’re still safe? How do you think I found out about you, anyway? Although I’d always thought the blond hair was Dalor’s.”
“My brother,” Nuella admitted.
“Can we go now?” Renna asked.
Toldur nodded. “Just let me get some glows.”
“No time,” Nuella said brusquely. “I’ll lead. I know this passageway like the back of my hand.”
“You can’t see the back of your hand,” Zenor muttered.
Nuella’s hand shot out, super-quick, and accurately whacked Zenor on the side of his head with the back of her hand.
“Who said anything about seeing it?” she asked sweetly. She walked into the closet and quickly slid open the secret door at the back.
“That’s got to hurt,” Renna added with no trace of sympathy for her brother.
Zenor grinned at her, still clutching his wounded head. “At least she’s not sulking anymore.”
“I heard that,” Nuella shouted back from the darkness.
Inside the passageway, they quickly picked up hard hats and put them on. Nuella led the way, with Kisk and Kindan close behind. Toldur brought up the rear, grumbling under his breath about missing glows.
“Shut the door,” Nuella called over her shoulder. “Kisk sees best in the dark.” After she heard the door close, she asked Kindan, “Do you remember how many paces it was to the new mine shaft?”
“One hundred and forty-three after the first turn,” Kindan replied without thinking.
“You lead then,” Nuella ordered, bracing herself against the wall to let him and Kisk pass.
“Why this passage?” Renna asked. “Who built it and why?”
Toldur answered her. “We did—Natalon, your father, Kindan’s father, and myself when we first came into this valley, half a Turn before the rest of you. Natalon wanted to be sure that the rock was strong enough for a hold. We used all the rocks we excavated to build Natalon’s hold, the Harper’s hold, and the bridge over the river.
“It took us nearly two months,” he added. “But it was worth it because we learned a lot about digging through this sort of rock. It really helped when we sank the main shaft.”
“How long would it take to dig through from this passageway to the new shaft?” Nue
lla asked as she started forward again.
“Three, maybe four hours,” Toldur replied at once.
“That’s too long,” Zenor muttered.
“Could Kisk help?” Kindan wondered. “If we broke through in a couple of places, could she push hard enough?”
“It’s solid stone, Kindan,” Toldur objected.
“Is that for a full-grown man?” Renna asked. “Because I’m not full-grown; so maybe I could get through sooner.”
“We have to get Kisk down there, too,” Nuella pointed out.
“Here’s the turn,” Kindan called. He started counting his paces, trying not to let his pounding heart interfere.
“We could carve out a crawlway,” Cristov suggested.
“In an hour, maybe less,” Toldur agreed. “I’ll start.”
“You’d better be right about the position of that shaft,” Nuella muttered softly to Kindan.
Kindan took a ragged breath and nodded in the darkness. One twenty. One twenty-one.
“Are we there yet?” Renna called from the rear.
“Nearly,” Kindan called back. One thirty. “About ten more paces.”
He counted the final paces and stopped. “Right here.” He marked the spot with his hand. “Nuella, find my hand and put yours there,” he said. “I’m going to measure off the far side.”
“I’ll come with you,” she said. “Toldur, can you find my hand?”
In a few moments the big miner had marked out a crawlway with a few taps of his pickaxe.
“Okay, everyone put your fingers in your ears,” Toldur warned them. “This is going to get mighty loud.”
The big miner swung fifty times at his spot and then inspected his work. “Cristov, come here,” he called. Toldur got Cristov oriented and then the young miner went to work for another fifty blows. Zenor took over after that, then Kindan.
“My turn,” Renna declared when Kindan had counted fifty.
“This is not the time to learn to swing an axe,” Zenor swore at her.
“There’ll be plenty of work later,” Toldur promised, relieving Kindan of the axe.
“All right,” Renna allowed grudgingly.
A short while later, Toldur broke through. “How long did that take us?” he asked the group.
“Nineteen minutes,” Nuella responded promptly, “I timed it in my head.”
“Good,” Toldur said enthusiastically. “Let’s see if we can get a crawlspace done in the next twenty.”
In the end it took them twenty-three more minutes to clear a space wide enough for Kisk.
With Kindan’s encouragement, the small watch-wher poked her head through the opening. “Where are we, Kisk?” he asked her. The others waited silently.
Nuella felt for Kisk’s response. “We’re right behind the pumps,” she said.
“How’d you know?” Kindan asked, just about ready to say the same thing.
“I’ve gotten a lot better at feeling watch-wher’s thoughts,” she told him.
“Come on, let’s get going,” Renna urged from the back of the group.
“Let’s go, Kisk,” Kindan said to the watch-wher, giving her a push.
“Everyone be quiet,” Toldur whispered.
“Quiet?” Zenor repeated incredulously. “After all our digging?”
“That might not be noticed over the noise of the cave-in settling,” Toldur explained. “But voices will.”
The group crept silently around the unused pumps and over to the new shaft’s lifts.
“Two groups,” Kindan whispered over his shoulder. Nuella passed his message on. Kindan, Kisk, and Nuella climbed onto the lift at the top of the shaft. Kindan and Nuella worked as a team from months of practice.
“Shards, it’s noisy,” Kindan hissed as the thick ropes creaked and the pulley at the top of the shaft squealed.
“Don’t go too fast,” Toldur whispered from above.
“Don’t go too slow,” Nuella hissed at Kindan.
She fidgeted nervously while they waited at the bottom of the shaft for the others to lower themselves down.
“We weren’t that loud,” she whispered to Kindan.
“How do you know? We were too busy trying to be quiet to listen,” Kindan countered.
Finally, just when she thought she couldn’t take it anymore, the noise stopped. The others joined them.
“There won’t be anyone at the bottom of the old shaft, will there?” Zenor wondered aloud.
“No,” Toldur replied. “It’s too risky for anyone to stay down here.”
After a moment, Nuella said, “Kisk could see anyone before they could see her, anyway.”
“Let’s go, then,” Zenor said.
Nuella and Kindan had already started moving, with Kisk between them.
“No blindfold this time,” Kindan murmured to Nuella.
“Which is a pity, because I could have used it for a dust mask,” Nuella replied.
“Hang on,” Toldur whispered from behind them. The group paused. “Yup, I thought so,” he said after rustling a hand about in his hard hat. “There are scarves in the hard hats. Pull them out, but make sure you keep your hat over your head—there could be loose rocks anywhere along here jostled from the cave-in.”
“Not that it’ll do much good,” Nuella grumbled as they set off once more.
“Then why’d you mention it?” Zenor muttered back.
Nuella sniffed and increased her pace.
“You are keeping count, aren’t you?” Kindan asked her after a moment.
“Yes,” she said immediately. “Aren’t you?”
“Third Street is twelve paces ahead,” Kindan said by way of confirmation.
“Nuella,” he asked as they passed Third Street, “what if we’re too late?”
“We won’t be,” she said fervently, wishing it to be true. “When did it happen?”
“About an hour before sunset,” Kindan said. In agony, he confessed, “Kisk was still asleep. There was too much light for her until the sun went down. We got to the mine as quick as we could after that.”
Kisk gave Nuella a disconsolate bleep.
Instinctively, Nuella reached out and patted the watch-wher’s side. “Not your fault, sweetie, you did your best.”
Beside her, Kindan took Nuella’s words to heart, as well.
“That’s nearly twelve hours ago,” she said after a moment. “How long can their air hold out?”
“It depends on the size of the tunnel that survived,” Toldur answered from behind them. “No more than a day, though. Maybe less.”
Maybe a lot less, Nuella guessed. Desperate to avoid thinking about it, she said to Kindan, “Did you know that a watch-wher takes its name from its human?”
“Really?” Renna asked from the rear of the group, rightly guessing that Nuella was trying to distract herself.
“Yes,” Nuella affirmed. “And that the more bonded a watch-wher is with its human, the more closely the watch-wher’s name matches the human’s.”
“Oh,” Kindan said. “So I would’ve been better off to pick Kinsk over Kisk?”
“I don’t know how much it’s a question of your picking as it is of her picking,” Nuella corrected. “And it’s not to say that a short name won’t mean a long bonding. Renilan and Resk have been bonded now for over thirty Turns.”
“Oh,” Kindan said more cheerfully. Then he nearly tripped on a rock. “Rocks ahead!” he called over his shoulder. “Everyone mind your step.”
“Everyone start counting your paces,” Toldur ordered. “We don’t want to get lost.”
Nuella called out from the left, “First Street,” at the same time that Kindan called out from the right, “Main shaft.”
“Eighty-three meters from here,” Toldur said quietly.
“Do you feel that?” Cristov asked. “I feel a draft—it must be the pumps.”
“In or out?” Zenor asked. “It feels to me like it’s blowing in.”
“Everyone freeze!” Toldur hissed.
> “What’s wrong?” Nuella asked.
“Tarik’s blowing air into the mine,” Zenor replied in a dead voice.
“We’ll have to turn back,” Toldur said.
“Why?” Nuella cried. “We’re almost there! We can’t stop now!”
“Nuella,” Zenor said slowly, “with the air blowing in—it’s like adding coal to a fire.”
“No, it’s exactly like adding air to coal-gas,” Renna corrected. “It could cause an explosion.”
“He’s not doing it on purpose is he?” Kindan asked. No one wanted to answer that question.
“Come on, we have to turn around,” Toldur repeated.
“Wait!” Nuella cried desperately. “If we can get the pumps to suck the air out, could we go on?”
“It won’t work,” Zenor said. “You’d have to get crews on both the old and the new shafts or it’d have pretty much the same effect.”
No one knew what to say.
“We tried, Nuella,” Kindan said as the silence dragged on.
“I’m not quitting,” Cristov announced. “I won’t leave them.”
“We can come back when it’s safe,” Toldur said.
“For the bodies?” Zenor cried.
“Wait!” Nuella hissed. “If we could get the pumps on both shafts to suck the air out, could we continue?”
“It’d be too risky,” Toldur said after a moment. “The air has been pumped in here for hours now. At any moment it could meet a pocket of gas and . . .”
Everyone shuddered at the thought of the fireball that would result.
“We could leave our picks here,” Cristov suggested. “That way we couldn’t possibly make any sparks.”
“We’d have to move the rocks by hand anyway,” Zenor agreed.
“We still don’t have any way to get the pumps manned,” Toldur pointed out.
“Oh, yes we do,” Nuella said, her heart lifting. “Kindan, can I borrow Kisk for a moment?”
“Sure,” Kindan said instantly. “Where are you going?”
“Nowhere,” Nuella said in a tone that discouraged further questions. She put her hands on Kisk. “Kisk, I need you to talk to Lolanth. Tell Lolanth to talk to me, please. It’s an emergency.”
Kisk nodded her head and blinked her eyes slowly. Then she chirped a happy acknowledgment and butted Nuella in search of affection. Nuella gave the green watch-wher a quick pat on the neck.
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